The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on Wednesday announced that it had decided to begin a pilot project to launch crypto-rial as the bank’s digital currency as of Thursday. The declaration follows the bank’s publication in August of a draught paper describing the goals, dimensions, dangers, and prospects for the creation of a digital rial. Purpose of Creating Crypto-Rial According to the CBI, the purpose of creating the crypto-rial is to make banknotes into programmable entities. Its high level of security is regarded to be one of its defining attributes. The nature of crypto-rial makes it simple to monitor, and even if the data on smartphones gets hacked, the crypto-rial can still be recovered. The crypto-rial, which would be entirely digital and look like banknotes and coins, is anticipated as a new kind of national currency, according to past CBI pronouncements. CBI Project is Confidential The CBI’s crypto project has not fully revealed, but what is known indicates that the digital currency is not intended to rival other national cryptocurrencies. Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), in contrast to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, are centralized, not anonymous, and compliant with anti-money laundering regulations. Former CBI Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati in May 2021 had said that the institution has already created a “basic version” of a digital rial. Ali Salehabadi, the CBI’s current leader, stated earlier this month that...
